Why are Children Collateral Damage in Rape Laws?

We always talk about consent and how if there is none then it’s sexual assault or rape. But when we talk about children and consent, that’s where things get tangled and knotted. When a child is labeled as a “Child Prostitute” without even knowing that’s what they are, is there consent there? Children are vulnerable, impressionable and can be naive at times but to suggest that they would consent to being a prostitute or even being raped is absurd. So why are there laws supporting the right for an adult (mostly male) to have sex with a child? The legal age of consent in most states is either 16 or 18 years of age. There are laws on the books in most states that require consent but in Georgia, where the age of consent is 16, if there is no consent it is not deemed rape. This is because the testimony of the victim is not believed without supporting evidence. A lot of these charges vary with ridiculous exceptions like in Idaho if the female is under 16 any sexual conduct is considered lewd conduct with no consent from the child. ...read more...

Washington Law looks at child rape in degrees of three. First degree rape is a Class A felony when the child is under the age of 12 and the defendant is 2 years older. This carries a maximum sentence with a possibility of life imprisonment. Second degree rape is also a Class A felony with the child being 12 or 13 and the defendant is 2 years older. Third degree rape is where the child is 14 or 15 and the defendant is at least 4 years older. This is a Class C felony with maximum 5 years in prison. It seems the older the child gets the more it’s less of a crime on the part of the male. What’s interesting is they are willing to send a 14 or 15 year old male to prison for life but an 18 or 19 year old gets 5 years maximum. Is it possible the some sort of coercion on the part of the older male could’ve taken place. Basically talking her into it, making promises and reassuring her that it’s okay and normal? When a young girl “thinks” she’s in love whether she communicates it or not an older man, who is of the age of consent, should know enough not to take advantage of her emotional state at the moment. Teenagers change their mind like they change their fashion, one minute they’re totally into something and the next minute they’ve moved on. It’s all very murky with not much justice attached.
In France a bill that was originally designed to protect children from rape has been revised to give more justice to the rapist. Article 2 in this revised bill is the cause of much outrage with those who work with youth, including myself. In France it’s illegal for an adult to engage in sexual conduct with a minor under the age of 15 but it isn’t considered rape. The revision of Article 2 calls for not qualifying sex with someone under the age of 15 rape. This revision was called upon by French psychologists, social workers, doctors, lawyers and celebrities. Yes, you read that right. They even got together and wrote to Emmanuel Macron urging him to make this revision. Some may not be so surprised by celebrities but the people that work with these young children who are so severely damaged and traumatized by this is more enraging. Their reasoning for this is because they don’t want to see highly publicized cases in the media of men in their 20s having sex with 11 year old children. So punishing the child is the way to go. This opens up so much of a Pandora’s box it’s mind boggling. This makes me think of the countless young girls being gang raped in India with absolutely no justice given to the crime. Even flooding the streets with protesters doesn’t help. This is a place where lawyers are given prison time for speaking up on behalf of the victim and her family. Men in India do this with impunity and little to no punishment.
Why do we do this to children? How do we expect there to be future generations when this is what society thinks of trusting young girls and boys? As time goes on it will be hard pressed to find a child that has not experienced rape or sexual assault in some form. How will they deal with it knowing that they may not be protected by their government whose job it is to do just that? The bigger question is how to they move on and away from their trauma? If there are people out there fighting to make it okay for adults to have sex with children then we will see more broken and traumatized future generations incapable of functioning normally. Do we need to create a #MeToo for kids? Maybe then the government will listen.

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